A Tale of Two Cities -- Fremont, CA / Williston, ND

A huge "thank you" to CRC -- this link is being provided in case folks don't read comments. This really is a rewarding article to read on so many levels. Again, for newbies, I apologize. I am very, very biased. I grew up in Williston, North Dakota, so it was particularly "fun" to read.

In case the link is broken, google the subject and look for the The Examiner, Washington, DC.  Fremont is home to Solyndra.

If the Obama folks back in 2009 thought Fremont was the harbinger of America's future, one wonders what thoughts they had, if any, about Williston, N.D.

Probably none at all. North Dakota was for many years the state least visited by people from other states, an orderly rural state with about the same population as in 1930. There's no voter registration because everyone would know if a stranger came in to vote.

On the Missouri River bordering Montana, Williston and surrounding Williams County were quiet farming territory. The county's population reached 19,000 in 1930, then slumped, and only topped 19,000 again in 2000.

Williams County was the home of Henry Bakken, the farmer after whom the Bakken shale formation was named when it was discovered in 1953. For years geologists knew there was a lot of oil packed into the shale rock, but it was not economic to get it out.

Until recently.

Somewhat off-topic, some folks have written to me, talking a bit about the history of homesteading in North Dakota, mineral rights, farm subsidies, etc. My world view of all this was influenced by one of the first "real" books I ever read: Giants in the Earth, by Ole Rolvaag. I don't recall how I stumbled upon this book back in middle school or whenever it was. I assume it was on a reading list or when I asked one of my teachers for a book recommendation, this was the one given. Anyway, folks curious about the original settlers in and around Williston (as well as the entire upper central Midwest) would do well to read this book to get a better feeling of my "worldview" regarding the development of the oil patch.